Will invite Mamata to inaugurate East-West Metro: Babul

Praising the West Bengal government for supporting him in the East-West Metro project, Union Minister of State for Urban Development Babul Supriyo on Thursday said he will invite Mamata Banerjee to inaugurate the project if it is ready in 2018.

Kolkata: Praising the West Bengal government for supporting him in the East-West Metro project, Union Minister of State for Urban Development Babul Supriyo on Thursday said he will invite Mamata Banerjee to inaugurate the project if it is ready in 2018.

"If the Mamata Banerjee government helps us in the project, I will personally invite her to inaugurate it. If the state government helps, it will take three years for the metro to start," Supriyo told reporters here.

The Union Minister said he was getting full support on the project from Firhad Hakim, West Bengal's minister for urban development.

On earlier occasions, the BJP MP had complained he was not getting co-operation from the state government.

"They have promised me full support. You will see this in 2018 if the state and the Centre work in tandem," he said, adding he wants to keep politics aside and do work as all elected representatives have the responsibility to do so.

"My job is to ensure that Kolkata gets the Metro as soon as possible," Babul said.

Once ready, the 14.67-km corridor of the East-West Metro would connect Kolkata's satellite township of Salt Lake with Howrah.